Toyota Echo Hatchback (Vitz) 2001 Story | Restoration | DIY's

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humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 00:21:15 +0500 #5

During the intake manifold replacement, I asked the mechanic to open the VVTI filter & clean it, just for the sake of mind.

Here is its location for your convenience.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 00:25:08 +0500 #6

Inspected fuel filter & it was fully choked, so replaced it.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 00:32:26 +0500 #7

Set of freshly restored & smoked headlights, replaced the lenses & they are as good as new.

Installed the headlights & notice the encircled scratch & dent.

aziz.rehan (Rehan Aziz) 2021-07-23 00:41:51 +0500 #8

In Sha Allah ️.U will restore it nicely just like corolla.
Btw how many vehicles do u own?

Hassan1991 (Electrical Engineer ) 2021-07-23 00:48:15 +0500 #9

MASHALLAH nice one.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 00:50:09 +0500 #10

I personally own these two i.e. corolla & vitz, however we also have swift, city & corolla 18 in the house. Alhamdolillah.

And this project has been done since January 2021. I am posting it here now as I have nothing else to do in these boring Eid holidays.

aziz.rehan (Rehan Aziz) 2021-07-23 00:52:08 +0500 #11

Ma Sha Allah ️.May Allah give u more.

aziz.rehan (Rehan Aziz) 2021-07-23 00:52:56 +0500 #12

U use this wax.right?Is the price ok.I want to buy for corolla.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 00:57:59 +0500 #13

yup I use this. Plz note that it is very hard to take off this wax, so apply a very thin coat & then buff of within a minute or two. It is a pain to take in off, if it dries on the panel.
Price is fine as well.
i noticed that some people intentionally dry the wax applied by parking the car over sunlight. This is a wrong practice. So, be careful.

aziz.rehan (Rehan Aziz) 2021-07-23 00:59:27 +0500 #14

Ok bro thanks.Is the result good after waxing?And u bought it locally?

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 01:08:45 +0500 #15

Its time to prepare the car for paint shop.
For the love of DIY, I removed all the Trims, Bumpers, Shields, Side Skirts, Door mouldings/golay, Air press, Antenna, Roof rubber strips, Badges, Lights, Wipers & its trims, Door handles, Door rubbers & every single thing myself.
Here are some clicks

Ignore my old general window AC.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 01:13:40 +0500 #16

Took some clicks with reference of a measuring tape, so that I could re-locate the Badges exactly at the time of re-installation. This trick really helped alot.

Rear seats, spare wheel & all other accessories removed from trunk as well.

mehran (mehran) 2021-07-23 01:19:56 +0500 #17

Very interesting restoration narrative. I think it's a UK spec car especially as the indicator and wiper stalks were on the opposite side and speedometer showed speed in miles too. UK spec cars usually have such arrangements. Please continue the posts.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 01:27:01 +0500 #18

Jazak Allah for your interest. Btw speed & odo reading is in kilometres not in miles. But the cluster has option, we can change it to miles as well. So you might be right about it being a UK version. However, in UK, it never came under ECHO badge, those were all Yaris'es.

Can't say anything about its origin, its mysterious.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 01:46:53 +0500 #19

I strictly instructed the painter to sand down the whole car properly as I want the use of filler/putty to be minimum. And he used filler at some spots, which were beyond repair with sanding only. Rest all the finish is putty free, so you might notice some dings in below pics.
Please bear with those as I really hate the wavy reflection on panels, which are prepared using fillers, that is the only reason for not using filler. We even left some minor dings/dents as it is, instead of using filler.

Sanding Process

Sanding & filler work done

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 02:01:33 +0500 #20

First coat of primer applied.
Note that I purchased complete set of NEXA i.e. Primer, Base coat & Clear coat myself & agreed with the painter to give him labour charges only, as i provided all the paint material, sandpapers, masking tapes etc. Just to make sure that quality must not be compromised.

mehran (mehran) 2021-07-23 02:02:50 +0500 #21

A quick Google check has revealed that your Toyota Echo might be an Australian or Singapore model. Though it's quite interesting to see such an import in Pakistan.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 02:04:45 +0500 #22

2nd coat of primer, mixed with base colour applied & sanded as well.

Don't worry, next steps will be performed in paint booth, not openly.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 02:25:25 +0500 #23

All this prep work took 2 weeks as I asked the painter to do the quality work instead of hasting.
Finally the day comes for the final paint application.
Check out the video clip

I was very happy with the results, as there were no wavy panels, seamless mirror-like finish, as I wanted.

humayun.chughtai.7 (Humayun Azhar Chughtai) 2021-07-23 02:36:36 +0500 #24

Side skirts

Door handles

And we landed safely to our home parking space, where I let the car parked for straight 20 days in a corner where no body can go & fiddle with the car body/paint. As we got the car painted in extreme winters i.e. December 2020, so a fellow pakwheeler friend @effaf27 suggested me not to get the sanding, compounding/polishing done for 2 weeks at least, so that the paint hardens up completely.